second_street_canada_journalism_stories_people_politics_government_2
DONATE
Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Youtube
DONATE

Canada Needs to Get Serious About Preventing Illness – Here’s How Other Countries Are Doing It

Imagine you just finished waiting six months to finally meet with a specialist about your knee – the situation was so bad that even walking across your living room was a painful ordeal. The specialist reviewed your diagnostic scans, asked you a few questions and then recommended surgery – you’re told the wait time is a year. 

This example is far from a fantasy: wait lists are ballooning across Canada, emergency rooms are overwhelmed, and health care costs are climbing. Some patients are even dying while waiting for treatment.

But what if more Canadians never needed treatment in the first place? That’s where preventative health care comes in – and Canada is falling behind.

These staggering statistics characterize Canada right now:

  • 30 per cent of adults are considered obese and 37 per cent are physically inactive.
  • Only 39 per cent of children get the recommended amount of daily physical activity
  • Fewer than 1 per cent of teens meet the full national guidelines for exercise, screen time, and sleep

But it’s not just exercise that Canadians are deficient in – countless stories appear in the news each year that highlight dietary problems in our nation as well. Ultimately, the aforementioned stories aren’t just lifestyle choices. They’re a recipe for expensive, painful and dangerous chronic disease. 

The Canadian Cancer Society’s website notes that “about four in ten” cancer cases are preventable. Almost 80 per cent of premature heart disease and stroke can be prevented through healthy behaviours, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. This summer I was asked to explore what governments in other countries are doing to promote prevention. It was interesting to see a wide array of approaches – from policies that provide a gentle nudge toward healthier living to policies that are more aggressive (and would never be accepted in Canada). Here are five international prevention strategies that I looked at:

1. New Zealand: Prescriptions for Exercise

Becoming standard practice in the early 2000s, New Zealand doctors were among the first to begin writing “Green Prescriptions” for physical activity and outdoor time. Patients with conditions like hypertension, diabetes, or anxiety will get prescribed tailored fitness plans, often including subsidized access to gyms or walking groups, instead of jumping right into drug prescriptions. Many countries have endorsed and adopted this program, including Finland, the UK, and even the United States through the Park RX America platform. 

According to a New Zealand Public Health Study:

  • 42 per cent of patients who stuck to the program permanently increased their activity
  • 64 additional minutes per week of exercise were reported by participants

With Canada’s immense parkland across the country it is no surprise that similar “nature prescriptions” already exist in Saskatchewan, Ontario, BC, and Manitoba. Health care providers in those provinces can prescribe time in nature with  a Parks Canada Discovery Pass. However, more research is needed to be able to determine if there have been any significant improvements to participants’ health from these programs. But this is definitely a positive start. 

Perhaps Canadians might also benefit from being provided with written prescriptions to exercise more frequently.

2. Japan: Waistline Warnings & Forest Therapy

The impressive health of the Japanese population, along with the country’s thriving health care system, are already well-known facts, so it should come as no surprise that two of their practices have made the list. 

1. Japan’s “Metabo Law,” implemented in 2008, requires adults aged 40–75 to undergo annual waistline checks at their work. Those who measure over 33.5 inches (men) or 35.4 inches (women) get taxpayer-funded nutritional and exercise counselling provided by the Japanese government.  

This might seem a little strange and intrusive to Canadians, but it’s definitely an interesting example of another country taking preventative care seriously. 

2. The second example is “Shinrin Yoku” or “forest bathing”. It’s a Japanese program that draws millions into government-certified forest trails to go for walks in nature, promoting stress relief at the same time. 

The health benefits of forest therapy include:

  • Increases “natural killer” immune cells linked to cancer prevention
  • Reduces cortisol levels and blood pressure
  • Over 5 million participants per year walk certified trails

3. UK: Traffic Light Labelling on Food

Like many countries, the UK has high rates of obesity– with 63 per cent of adults in England in 2020 being classified as overweight – prompting the government to increase spending significantly in “personalized prevention.” But this isn’t the country’s first run at preventative health. 

Since 2006, the UK Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) have promoted a system of food marketing, coined “traffic light labelling.” This was implemented as a way to promote healthier eating habits, while disincentivizing poorer ones. Color-coding (red/amber/green) was used to indicate either high, medium, or low levels of total fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt. 

Although ultimately voluntary, this system was adopted by several big-name grocers such as Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, and Co-Op and has inspired the emergence of a similar practice in France. UK Reports show that this type of labeling not only empowered consumers to make healthier choices, but it also encouraged companies to begin making their food healthier– the more red lights your product has, the less likely a consumer is to buy it. 

No intrusive government intervention, just a simple voluntary business practice that could enhance consumer knowledge, improve citizens’ eating habits on a large scale, and hopefully encourage companies to make better food.

4. Finland: The Diet That Saved a Province

In the 1970s, Finland’s North Karelia region had the highest heart disease rate in the world. Most people there ate lots of salt and animal fats without many vegetables or fruits. Smoking was also very common. The government wanted things to change, so it came up with a comprehensive plan aimed at radically changing lifestyles. It included organized efforts to change how food is produced, distributed, and consumed, as well as local food campaigns and anti-smoking measures. For instance, it held multiple “Health Day” campaigns in local supermarkets where customers could take a cholesterol test and blood pressure measurement free of charge. 

Between 1972-2012, The North Karelia Project was responsible for a massive societal shift: 

  • Cardiovascular deaths in working-age men dropped by 82 per cent
  • Smoking fell from 52 per cent to 33 per cent
  • Fat content in meat and salt content in bread dropped 

One of the more interesting examples from this project is the testing of cholesterol and blood pressure in grocery stores. This gives patients a voluntary option to check-in and learn about how they can improve their health. So how could Canada learn from this? Bring health information and education to people’s everyday lives. 

5. Turkiye: Learn Your Ideal Weight, Live Healthy

Ranking first in all of Europe for rates of overweight and obesity– with almost 67 per cent of the population affected– the Turkish health minister has spearheaded a recent “public weighing campaign.” According to Turkish media, this campaign involves measuring citizens’ height, weight, and Body Mass Index (BMI) in public spaces across all 81 provinces. It’s a voluntary program, so people aren’t required to listen to health care bureaucrats on the street. 

Beginning on May 10 this year, those who are assessed as having a BMI of 25 or higher were directed to Healthy Life Centers to receive nutritional counseling from registered dietitians. The health minister himself was even subjected to the scale, and after announcing his BMI was over 25 he joked “which dietitian should I go to?”

This campaign is relatively new so there is no way to accurately gauge its success– and public opinion so far is somewhat negative. What do you think of this campaign? Perhaps Canadians might be more interested in an approach that doesn’t involve weighing people on the street, but instead shares information about diet and exercise that can improve personal health?

So What Should Canada Do?

 

Without a doubt, Canada needs health reform to improve how our health care system functions and the choices available to patients. The reality is that many health problems are due to aging, genetic conditions and other factors – and so we will never be able to fully “prevent” all demand for health services. 

However, if we want shorter wait lists in the health system, we would benefit from having a healthier society in the first place. And for a country like Canada– where people need more care than there is available– we can’t afford to neglect this option. 

Although the examples aren’t all  perfect fits for Canada, these five countries and their health strategies can act as inspiration for governments in Canada to identify ideas that promote health in creative ways while not limiting citizens’ freedoms. 

Jane Gordon served as an intern with SecondStreet.org during the summer of 2025

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter

You can help us continue to research and tell stories about this issue by making a donation or sharing this content with your friends. Be sure to sign up for our updates too!

GET UPDATES
DONATE
Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Youtube

Get Updates

SUBSCRIBE

Sign-up and receive the latest news from SecondStreet.org

Donate now

DONATE

We are 100% funded by donations. With your help, we can tell even more Canadians’ stories!

© 2021 SecondStreet.org. All Rights Reserved

Prevention – reduce demand in the first place

If Canadians lived healthier lives, we could reduce demand for emergency services, orthopaedic surgeries, primary care and more. 

For instance, if you visit the Canadian Cancer Society’s website, you’ll read that “about four in ten” cancer cases are preventable. The Heart and Stroke Foundation notes that “almost 80 percent of premature heart disease and stroke can be prevented through healthy behaviours.” A similar number of Diabetes cases are also preventable. 

Many joint replacements and visits to ERs and walk-in clinics could also be avoided through healthy living. 

To be sure, not all health problems can be avoided through healthy living – everyday the system treats Canadians with genetic conditions, helps those injured in unavoidable accidents and more.  

But there is an opportunity to reduce pressure on the health care system through Canadians shifting to healthier lifestyles – better diets, more exercise, etc. 

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see this column. 

Partner with non-profits and for-profit clinics

European countries will partner with anyone who can help patients. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s a non-profit, a government entity or a private clinic. What matters is that patients receive quality treatment, in a timely manner and for a competitive price.  

In Canada, governments often delivery services using government-run hospitals instead of seeing if non-profit or private clinics could deliver the services more effectively. 

When governments have partnered with non-profit and private clinics, the results have often been quite good – Saskatchewan, Ontario and British Columbia are just a few examples of where partnerships have worked well. 

Canada should pursue more of these partnerships to reduce wait times and increase the volume of services provided to patients.  

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see the links above. 

Make cross border care more accessible

In Canada, citizens pay high taxes each year and we’re promised universal health care services in return. The problem is, wait times are often extremely long in our health system – sometimes patients have to wait years to see a specialist or receive surgery. 

If patients don’t want to wait long periods, they often have to reach into their own pocket and pay for treatment outside the province or country. 

Throughout the European Union, we also find universal health care systems. But a key difference is that EU patients have the right to go to other EU countries, pay for surgery and then be reimbursed by their home government. Reimbursements cover up to what the patient’s home government would have spent to provide the treatment locally. 

If Canada copied this approach, a patient waiting a year to get their hip operation could instead receive treatment next week in one of thousands of surgical clinics throughout the developed world. 

Governments benefit too as the patient is now back on their feet and avoiding complications that sometimes come with long wait times – meaning the government doesn’t have to treat those complications on top of the initial health problem. 

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or this shorter video. 

Legalize access to non-government providers

Canada is the only country in the world that puts up barriers, or outright bans patients from paying for health services locally. 

For instance, a patient in Toronto cannot pay for a hip operation at a private clinic in Toronto. Their only option is to wait for the government to eventually provide treatment or leave the province and pay elsewhere. 

Countries with better-performing universal health care systems do not have such bans. They allow patients a choice – use the public system or pay privately for treatment. Sweden, France, Australia and more – they all allow choice. 

Why? One reason is that allowing choice means some patients will decide to pay privately. This takes pressure off the public system. For instance, in Sweden, 87% of patients use the public system, but 13% purchase private health insurance. 

Ultimately, more choice improves access for patients. 

To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or watch this short clip on this topic. 

Shift to funding services for patients, not bureaucracies

In Canada, most hospitals receive a cheque from the government each year and are then asked to do their best to help patients. This approach is known as “block funding”. 

Under this model, a patient walking in the door represents a drain on the hospital’s budget. Over the course of a year, hospital administrators have to make sure the budget stretches out so services are rationed. This is why you might have to wait until next year or the year after for a hip operation, knee operation, etc. 

In better-performing universal health systems, they take the opposite approach – hospitals receive money from the government each time they help a patient. If a hospital completes a knee operation, it might receive, say, $10,000. If it completes a knee operation on another patient, it receives another $10,000. 

This model incentivizes hospitals to help more patients – to help more patients with knee operations, cataract surgery, etc. This approach also incentivizes hospitals to spend money on expenses that help patients (e.g. more doctors, nurses, equipment, etc.) rather than using the money on expenses that don’t help patients (e.g. more admin staff). 

To learn more about this policy option, please watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see this post by MEI.